All this being said, I think that Elmer Gantry makes an ironically wonderful nom de guerre for me. In fact, I don’t know that I could have chosen better.
All the snow has turned to water
Christmas day has come and gone
Broken toys and faded colors
Are all that's left to linger on
I hate graveyards and old pawnshops
For they always bring me tears
Can't forgive the way they rob me
Of my childhood souvenirs
Lyrics to John Prine's "Souvenirs"
Anonymous said...Sir...I sometimes think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated His ability. This droll account of your life you call a blog is living proof. You mention that your blog is inspired by Marcus. Please study it further to learn the nature of true blogsmanship.
Dec 13th 2007
From The Economist print edition
The Manchurian candidate
“The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level—through the president of the United States, one of their own!!!!”
Two volunteers for the Clinton campaign have resigned over forwarding e-mails saying that
School days
“I know that folks were rifling through my kindergarten papers. I'm going to be disclosing them tomorrow. It will show that I experimented with colouring outside the lines. I was pulling on pigtails.”
Mr Obama continues to make hay with the Clinton campaign's excesses. ABCNews.com, December 12th
Free will
“I'm not here to tell you what to think. I got some sense. I know the difference between a book club and this seminal moment in our history.”
Oprah Winfrey campaigning last weekend for Mr Obama.
Job seeker
“Since I'm from Georgia, I'll say the opposite of Sherman...If drafted, I would run, and if nominated, I would serve.”
Newt Gingrich wants to be vice-president. “This Week”, ABC, December 9th
Food pyramid
“Carrots. I just don't like carrots. I banned them from the governor's mansion when I was governor of Arkansas because I could.”
Mike Huckabee discusses his most disliked food. Other candidates are equally opposed to vegetables; mushrooms are particularly unpopular. Associated Press, December 6th
Life's disappointments
“Voters are going to say, ‘I want to get my Christmas shopping done.’ They're going to go to their mailboxes hoping for an invitation to a cocktail party, and instead get a campaign mailing.”
Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist, on why most campaigns will take a break over Christmas. Des Moines Register, December 10th
Southern hospitality
“He's masquerading as a good ole boy.”
Jim Hanks, chairman of the South Carolina League of the South, objects to Tennessean Fred Thompson's lack of support for reintroducing the Confederate flag. CNN.com, December 5th
Insane clown posse
“These people are crazy—crazy in a good way.”
Ron Paul's son on his father's supporters. Washingtonpost.com, December 10th
Morning Edition, December 12, 2007 · There are, I have discovered, four things in the world today that you absolutely cannot count on:
1) Airlines
2) Vladimir Putin
3) Giving a small boy a goldfish and expecting it to live very long
4) College coaches honoring their contracts
Let us confine our remarks to the latter, inasmuch as this is the high season when most college football coaches are anxiously looking for greener pastures. The same thing will happen four months hence with basketball coaches. They let themselves be wooed by other colleges, with the idea that they can just pull up stakes or, just as good, use these pretty attentions to rewrite their current deal.
Most everything in college sports is deceitful, but the coaching Virginia reel is the worst of it. After all, it isn't just the greedy, duplicitous coaches who are at fault here. They're seduced by athletic directors and, yes, college presidents. Everyone's on the make. As a consequence, it's difficult for anybody in college sports ever to decry the total lack of ethics that we see when coaches cut and run.
Now, please understand that in this great capitalistic land of ours, everybody has a right to better themselves. If some coach is at little East Cupcake Teachers College and gets a chance to take over the football fortunes of Glory-Be State U. A & M., hey, it's only fair to tear up his contract and wish him Godspeed. But when coaches at reasonably equivalent big-time institutions cheat and duck out, that's unconscionable.
The greater sin is that there's such a horrible double standard. Coaches recruit high school players. Sure, these kids sign up to go to a college. Some of them might even like the place. And some of them know they're going to get good money under the table from the friendly boosters. But mostly, kids go to play for a coach, not to play at a college. But they have to sign a National Letter of Intent — a bona fide contract — which locks them into that school. If they want to switch colleges — because, as we hear from the coaches' lobby, everybody in this great capitalistic land of ours has a right to better themselves — the players have to sit out a year from their sport.
At the very least, the NCAA — which is essentially to college athletic departments, what the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce is to casinos — ought to allow any player the right to bail out the instant their dear, old coach does.
It's ironic that professional coaches almost never jump teams. Professional sports don't presume to be anything but what they are, which is a business doing business. College sports are some kind of s bizarre hybrid, so everybody has to fib some to keep up the educational pretense. With that kind of framework, why should contracts and loyalty and honor matter?
Unless, of course, you've got a vulnerable 18-year-old kid over the barrel. He alone has to play by the rules that the adults thumb their noses at.
Published: Tuesday, December 11, 2007
They Said It
Culled from the pages of WWD. Compiled by Dianne M. Pogoda
“I worry a little about calling it blackberry, but that’s what it is.”
— David Yurman, on the brand’s new packaging; Jan. 5
“I love breaking the rules and the ability to have other niches. There’s no limit. I think this is very important for retail.”
— Ralph Lauren, on his company’s new Global Brand Concepts private label division; Jan. 8
“I like a woman who takes pride in the way she looks. I like women who aren’t afraid to iron. People don’t iron anymore. Sometimes you gotta iron.”
— Rap star Coolio, on his new collection; Jan. 10
“There’s something to be said for being kicked out of your comfort zone. But I have learned that all businesses are alike and face the same kind of challenges. You’d be surprised at how much business is like business.”
— Newly minted Liz Claiborne ceo William L. McComb; Jan. 16
“It helps that I speak the languages. I can scream at [Mario] Boselli in Italian and beg to Didier [Grumbach] in French.”
— CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg; Jan. 19
“There would be a revolt in this country if the Super Bowl were pay-per-view. I think we should make the State of the Union pay-per-view.”
— Humorist Mo Rocca; Jan. 25
“There are more fat people in the world than too-skinny ones, and the fat ones have big, big problems. Nobody cares; they are not glamorous. We are designers, not doctors who have to care about ‘eating disorders.’”
— Karl Lagerfeld; Jan. 30
“Counterfeiters and pirates are thwarting economic development and endangering health and safety.”
— Kamil Idris, World Intellectual Property Organization; Jan. 31
“We’re cold, but we’re willing to freeze our butts off for a few hours.”
— PETA protestor Melissa Sehgal, wearing only a PETA banner; Feb. 2
“I wear Black Orchid a lot, but I’m not your average guy.”
— Tom Ford on his Private Blend fragrance collection; Feb. 2
“Young designers are so interesting and cool. [They] have a very clear sense of what people want to wear, especially young people. Not to dis people who have been around for a real long time. Obviously, there is a lot to be said for longtime talent and expertise.”
— Anna Paquin; Feb. 5
“There is a terrible tendency in
— Colin McDowell, Fashion Fringe; Feb. 6
“I think it’s the first season I haven’t been run over by Beyoncé’s bodyguard.”
— Cindi Leive, on the dearth of celebrities at the
“I’m the least electable person in the country. I would start out my campaign with the slogan ‘Religion is bad and drugs are good.’”
— Bill Maher; Feb. 16
“People look at me and David and they see fashion, they see family, they see sports. I think there are people who want to be a part of that. It’s aspirational.”
— Victoria Beckham, on her budding lifestyle empire, dVb; Feb. 20
“I don’t spend all my life at the gym. I’m not constantly at the hairdresser’s changing the color of my hair. And I’m not constantly on a camel on research because if I was, I wouldn’t have achieved what I’ve achieved in the last 10 years…
“More and more I’m realizing that [Christian Dior] laid the blueprint for fashion as we know it today, and the staples of a woman’s wardrobe today….And this was achieved in 10 years and continues today.”
— John Galliano; Feb. 27
“I just think that my work is so far ahead of the curve that it took a while for uptown to catch up.”
— Eric Bogosian; March 1
“I told [chef] Stephanie [Valentine] she could use lobster, caviar,
— Kendall Conrad at a luncheon for her new cookbook; March 1
“It costs so much that we are not even saying how much.”
— Versace chief Giancarlo DiRisio, on the helicopter designed by the house; March 1
“I walk down the street or into a room at Sundance and everyone wants to know what I think about their movies. I go to a fashion show and no one gives a s--t what I think.”
— Harvey Weinstein; March 12
“
— Elaine Kaufman, Elaine’s; March 13
“
—
“Fashion is not just aligning itself with art. Art is realizing it is doing well to align itself with fashion.”
— Tamsen Schwartzman, the Museum at FIT; March 13
“People want to feel privileged.”
— Sarah Lerfel, Collete; March 26
“I’m on caviar alert — it must be around here somewhere.”
— Gordon Campbell Gray, at the launch of Quintessentially Wine rare vintage club; April 3
“H&M is fantastic, but this kind of [guest celebrity designer] strategy is depressing because it plays with people’s sense of inadequacy, treating customers as schmucks because they need the endorsement of a high-profile person to feel worthy.”
— Giorgio Armani; April 18
WWD: What’s your favorite question to ask people on your show?
Larry King: Why.
WWD: Why?
Larry King: It fits any subject, any answer. It always works. You could ask why all day long.
— April 20
“You know what I did wrong at Barneys? I took calculated risks — I just didn’t manage them well.…We were a runaway train. We’d moved from heavyweight to overweight. We overspent tremendously. Perhaps my biggest oversight was this: I should have come up for breath every once in a while to see what the hell was going on with the numbers — even though finance wasn’t under my direct jurisdiction. Such is the consequence of a family-run business.”
— Gene Pressman on Barneys; April 30
“Eternity, as far as I’m concerned.”
— Fendi ceo Michael Burke, on the length of Karl Lagerfeld’s contract; May 1
“I’m on top of the world.”
— Marc Jacobs; May 4
“I wanted Alice to look like she could kick your ass, not just sit around and drink tea….I knew I didn’t want to be in the [fashion] industry. I call my designs costumes, not fashion. I didn’t want to make things people buy, but make things that people would pay to see.”
— School of the Art Institute student Robyn Coffey, about her Driehaus Award-winning postapocalyptic “
“I’ll still drive my car and do my own shopping. I do not intend to change my style or my life.”
— Newly installed French First Lady Cecilia Sarkozy; May 22
“We have a bulletproof contract. Nothing has changed.”
— Giancarlo Giammetti, on his and business partner Valentino’s contracts; June 14
“I psyched myself up for the job.”
— Actor Djimon Hounsou, on becoming the next Calvin Klein underwear model; July 16
“Jazz is very related to modern art. It takes off on a theme, goes on to something entirely different and then comes back. Abstract art is like a Titian painting without the head. If you look at the shapes and the colors, it’s the same.”
— Artist Francine Tint; Aug. 13
“They still look like bad girls, but bad girls in demure clothing, which is much better for their mystique.”
—Simon Doonan, Barneys
“There are a lot of celebrities who are into fashion, but I actually go to school for it.”
— Venus Williams, launching her EleVen collection for Steve & Barry’s; Aug. 23
“The most important part of art is to be authentic, not to let yourself be influenced by people simply because they are successful.”
— Artist Hedda Sterne; Sept. 4
“As long as I’ve been in the business, I have never seen a delay as long.”
— Jim Gold, Bergdorf Goodman, about the two-hour wait at Marc Jacobs’ spring show; Sept. 12
“I don’t really feel a part of the American fashion community. I really feel like an outsider, I think we all do, and we feel unloved here, so we want to go somewhere else.”
— Marc Jacobs, about the uproar over his spring show; Sept. 13
“I’m thrilled to be here tonight because it proves that I’m still breathing. A lot of people think I’m dead.”
— Lauren Bacall; Oct. 17
“I think it’s the first fashion show visible from the moon.”
— Bernard Arnault, about Fendi’s show staged on the Great Wall of China; Oct. 22
“[My personal style is] very
— Emerging musician Nicole Atkins; Oct. 29
“He thought he was Christ.”
— Biographer John Richardson about Pablo Picasso; Nov. 5
“Bad taste bothers me.”
— Giorgio Armani; Nov. 6
“For 45 years, everyone thinks I love parties and to go out. It’s all wrong. I love to stay home.”
— Valentino; Nov. 13
“I’ve been big. I’ve been small. I’ve been middle. I don’t see anything big about big. Bigger means more layers, more bureaucracy, less customer service and slower speed.”
— Millard “Mickey” Drexler; J. Crew, Nov. 14
“These aren’t brilliant ideas….The thing that we realized fairly quickly is that growth and success come from brilliant execution more than they do brilliant ideas.”
— Mackey McDonald, VF Corp.; Nov. 14
“I bought two Fendi fur coats. I’ll have to change the buttons — they say Fendi.”
— Diane von Furstenberg at Seventh on
“I feel like I’m part of an Internet revolution because my music is reaching 14-year-olds in
— Singer-songwriter Meiko; Nov. 27
Who's On First?
WWD asked designers coming to
"Is that a restaurant?"
— Christian Louboutin
"I don't know B-Rod! P.S.: I was told this word has a double meaning...but English is not my first language."
— Karl Lagerfeld
"It's the nickname of a New York Yankees player...and if I were to ask you who Bobo is?"
— Alberta Ferretti
"Is it the new iPod?"
— Alber Elbaz
"Is he a new designer?"
— Roberto Cavalli
"Mr. Valentino has not heard of A-Rod."
— Valentino spokesman
"What is it? Oh, I'm very ignorant about basketball."
— Giles Deacon
